Jings – a complete 'Oor Wullie' collection at NLS!

'Oor Wullie' annual,
1940. By courtesy of
Lyon and Turnbull.

Two extremely rare editions of the 'Oor Wullie' annual will
shortly arrive at the National Library of Scotland.

We have been looking for a while for the first and second
volumes of cartoon tales about one of the iconic characters in
Scottish popular culture. All that was missing to complete our
collection of the annuals were those from 1940 and 1942.

Very few copies of these 2 paperback annuals are known to
survive, and those we bought at auction are in good condition,
considering their age.

A Scottish favourite

Dundee-based publishers D C Thomson created 'Oor Wullie' as a
cartoon strip in the 'Sunday Post' newspaper in 1936. These were
the only 2 annuals produced during the war years, due to paper
shortages, and it wasn't until 1948 that the book began to appear
regularly. It went on to become a Scottish favourite and a popular
Christmas gift.